Endings and Beginnings
by Closet Scribbler
Summary: An alternate Season 4. B/G. First Buffy fic so please be gentle!
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: Ok, so this is set at the end of 'Living Conditions' and very rapidly descends into my own AU, I've got quite a lot of the story planned out and should probably give a heads up that it'll be a long one! This is my first Buffy fic so any feedback would be greatly appreciated as I'm not totally comfortable with their characterisation yet. It is a B/G fic but starts out with friendship...**

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Endings and Beginnings.

Chapter 1.

"How's that?" Giles asked with a slight grunt as he stretched his arms out and held the poster flat to the wall.

"Uh-uh, a little to the left," Buffy advised and kept a watchful eye as he slowly inched the Dingoes poster to the left, "there. Perfect. I'm so glad Will's moving in, I can already feel all that bad Kathy-karma just draining away."

A small half smile graced Giles mouth as he watched her turn and start rummaging through some of the half empty boxes still littering the room, so very grateful that she appeared to be herself again. His thoughts turned towards the last few days and a scowl replaced the earlier smile chasing his previous good mood away as he realised how close they came to losing her completely. "I'm sorry I doubted you," he said, quietly, hands balling in to fists as he waited for her to chastise him.

Instead she surprised him with a dazzling smile as she turned back to face him. "You're completely forgiven." Giles opened his mouth to protest but was quickly stunned into silence when she crossed over to where he stood and gave his arm a gentle squeeze. "You had reason to doubt, Giles, don't sweat it."

"Yes well," he murmured, as he whipped his glasses off and started polishing them with his shirt, flustered from the unexpected contact and the generosity of the young woman in front of him. "It won't happen again."

She favoured him with another smile. "Good," she tilted her head slightly and looked up at him from underneath her lashes as she added, "Want to take me for mocha's in Will's absence?"

"I am unemployed, you know," he teased, enjoying the way her smile instantly turned into a pout. When she added puppy dog eyes into the mix he rolled his eyes at her good naturedly and nodded in defeat.

"Yay me!" she said, excitedly, as she grabbed his arm and headed for the door.

"What, no tea?" she asked, incredulously, when he ordered a cappuccino for himself.

He had the good grace to wait until the waitress was out of sight before allowing a grimace to appear on his face. "No, I dread to think what it would taste like from here."

"Snob."

"And proud of it," he assured her with a playful grin which made her laugh. "When I find an American that can brew a cup of tea properly, and stock decent tea, I'll be the first to sing their praises. Until then, I'll make my own and stick to coffee in public, thank you very much."

"Could you be more English?" she asked through her giggles.

"Oh yes, I'm sure I could be a lot worse. In fact, I think you've led me astray somewhat." He winked at her and she snorted and then flushed with embarrassment as the waitress chose that precise moment to reappear with their drinks.

"How's the job hunting going?" she asked, seemingly out of nowhere, as she spooned an alarming amount of sugar into her mocha.

Giles blinked once in surprise at the sudden shift in topic and then thought about her question. "It's...going."

She frowned at him, confusion plainly written on her face. "Meaning?"

He sighed and then shrugged. "I'm taking it slowly. I, well, um, you see, the thing is..."

"Less stutter, more answers," she demanded, smiling at him to soften her words.

"I, uh, I don't know what I want to do," he said, embarrassed, "It's the first time I've really had a choice and I find that I'm uncertain of which direction to go in."

Buffy swallowed, thickly, as she thought about how adrift he must have felt since losing both of his occupations. She was ashamed to admit that she hadn't thought about his feelings at all during the last few months and wondered why he put up with her at all. "I'm sorry," she said, sincerely, as she met his soft gaze.

"What on earth for?" She would have found his bewildered expression comical, had their conversation been any less serious.

"For not thinking about you, Giles! For focusing on my needs instead of yours, we're a team, or we were until college, and I should have been there for you."

"Buffy, that's very sweet but I do understand what it's like to be young. You're allowed to be a little self-centred now and again; it's all part of growing up."

"I'm not sure I like this growing up thing," she grumbled.

He gave a small laugh and smiled at her kindly. "No, it's not all it's cracked up to be."

"Do you want to leave?" she asked, timidly, as she looked away from him and stared at the table.

Giles heard the uncertainty in her voice and reached his hand across the table and rested it lightly on top of hers and waited until her gaze met his before he spoke softly. "No," she read the sincerity in his eyes and breathed a small sigh of relief, "I'll never leave you Buffy. I'm sorry if I made you think that. When you started college I know said I couldn't always be there for you and that you no longer needed a watcher and, in some respects, I was right. It wouldn't be fair to you for me to stand in the way of your independence. I may not be your watcher any longer," he squeezed her fingers as her mouth opened to automatically protest and she shut it again, silently agreeing to let him finish. "but I do hope I can be your friend."

"I'd like that," Buffy smiled at him gently, "I'd like that a lot."

"That's settled then," he said, gruffly, eyes shining brightly.

"You desperately want to polish your glasses now, don't you?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood and restore some of their earlier banter.

He barked out a laugh and she felt a warmth spread through her at the sight of his smile. "That predictable, am I?"

"Sometimes," she answered with a grin as he removed his hand from hers and whipped his glasses off his face. "And sometimes you just confuse the hell out of me."

"The feeling is entirely mutual, I assure you."

"See, we have something else in common," she said, grinning happily, "which, apart from being a little weird..."

"Is kind of okay," he finished, gazing warmly at her. He asked about her classes and leant back in his seat, content to watch her as she babbled excitedly about her courses and her college life so far. He felt better than he had in months and knew from the relaxed smile on her face that their impromptu talk had gone some way to restoring their previous closeness. He wondered, idly, what might have happened had they not had this talk but then pushed the thought aside, preferring to focus on the here and now and the lively young woman in front of him.

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**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone for their kind comments, please keep them coming as it helps to keep me going! I ended up having to split this into two chapters as it was getting way too long so there is more to come soon-ish.**

"Hey look. Parker's here." Willow shot an incredulous look as her best friend when she didn't immediately turn around and check him out. "You're not looking? He looks really cute in green."

"Teal," Buffy corrected, a secret smile claiming her face, "he's reflected in the mirror."

The red head rolled her eyes, "You know, when you spend all week with a boy, you are allowed to look at him directly."

"Not all week," she protested, weakly, " we hung out. Moderately incessantly. But we're not here together tonight, you know. I don't want to crowd him. And I'm not seeing him at all tomorrow day, cause I'm seeing Giles."

"Training?"

"And lunch after," Buffy said smiling happily.

"You guys ready to go," Oz asked, as he appeared after the Dingos had finished their set.

"Almost. Buffy's looking at Parker." She looked at the mirror and then at Buffy as she teasingly added, "Who it turns out has a reflection, so big plus there. Buffy's having lusty wrong feelings."

"No I'm not," the blonde protested, immediately.

"No you're not."

"Oh, I so am," she admitted with a little blush.

"No, uh, they're not wrong feelings cause you're free, you're both grown-ups," she clarified, "You are free, right?"

The witty retort that she had planned died on her lips as she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and turned to find herself face to face with Parker.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"I just wanted to let you know I'm headed out. And it's not real safe here, so if you want to walk back to your dorm..."

"How silly of me not to have planned ahead," Buffy said as she grabbed her jacket and prepared to leave.

Willow smiled at her slyly, "Bye."

"See you guys," Parker said, politely, as he shepherded Buffy out.

"Good morning Buffy, are you well?" Giles asked as she strolled into his apartment the following morning.

"Hey Giles! I'm the well-est." At his raised eyebrow she merely grinned unrepentantly and then proceeded to launch into a full blown account of her evening at the Bronze. "So then, he walked me home and we got to chatting and I totally put my foot in it and thought I'd ruined everything but he was so cool about it and asked me to a party tonight!"

Giles blinked at the rapidness of her speech and the excitement in her tone as she gushed about her latest beau. He wasn't quite sure how asking how she was as she walked in the door had elicited such a response but one thing he did know was that she'd never concentrate if she didn't get it all out of her system first. "And this is your subtle way of asking me to patrol tonight?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "No, I'm not trying to shirk my duty on to you...but now that you've offered..." she teased and then held her hands up in submission as he glared, lightly, "kidding! I'll do an early sweep and then go to the party."

"That sounds, um, sensible."

"Way to sound surprised there Giles! Thanks very much! Nice to know what you really think about me."

"What? No! Buffy, that isn't what I meant at all."

"Relax Giles," she said, taking a step closer, "I'm just teasing you."

He huffed slightly and then met her gaze warmly. "Am I to put up with this every time a young man asks you out?"

"Probably!"

"Wonderful," he grumbled as he struggled not to smile. "Should I attempt to get us on track and start training or is there more?" A small chuckle escaped him as he watched a light blush stain her cheeks.

"Okay, okay, I'm done."

"Jolly good. Hand to hand?" Buffy shrugged indifferently as she slipped her sweater off and flung it on the couch. "I promise not to make you chip your nail polish."

"Just for that I'm gonna kick your ass," she said happily.

He gave her a feral grin and began circling her. "You're certainly welcome to try."

"Need a hand up?" she asked, gloating, as she knocked him to the floor for the fifth time in the past hour.

"Not bloody likely," he growled and pushed himself back onto his feet. "Again?"

She raised her eyebrow and shook her head. "Are you kidding? I can totally see you're worn out."

"I am no-"

She held her hand up, effectively silencing his protest. "That wasn't a crack about your age. You're in great shape, Giles, all that jogging is definitely paying off but you're no good to me if you're too tired to train effectively." He tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes at her. "What?"

"Just wondering what happened to the girl that used to knock me over for the sheer hell of it."

"She grew up and decided to treat her friend with the respect he deserves," she replied, seriously.

Giles felt his cheeks flush and lowered his gaze to the floor. "Yes, well, um, thank you, Buffy."

"No thanks needed," she said, happily, as she stripped her pads off her hands, "But I wouldn't say no to a shower and some lunch..."

"No I don't suppose you would," he grumbled, affectionately, "I suppose you'd also like the first shower and to stick me with the sandwich making?"

"You know me so well," she said, airily, enjoying the way his deep chuckle seemed to reverberate around the apartment. Impulsively she leaned up and pecked him on the cheek. As her lips grazed against the warm stubble of his cheek she couldn't decide who, out of the two of them, was more surprised at the kiss but what shocked her most was the rush of warmth that spread through her body at the fleeting contact. Filing the thought away for later, she snatched up her work out bag and bid a hasty retreat for the bathroom, leaving a startled and adorably confused former Watcher in her wake.

"Oooh sandwiches. Gimme!" Buffy exclaimed, twenty minutes later, as she re-entered the living room to find an assortment of food laid out on the coffee table.

"Do try to save me some," a gentle voice teased as she immediately started munching on a cheese sandwich.

"I'll try," she answered, solemnly. Not fooled for a second Giles decided to postpone his shower in favour of eating and flopped down onto the sofa beside her. "Whoa, Giles! No offence, but you stink."

"Someone commandeered my shower," he reminded her and gave her a pointed look. He was surprised when she blushed and looked away suddenly.

"Oh yeah, my bad," she mumbled, desperately trying to get rid of the flush from her cheeks as she remembered the tickle of his skin against her lips. She wasn't sure why she was fixating on a tiny, inconsequential, _non _kiss anyway, not when she had a date. With a college hottie no less. And smooching was bound to be high on the agenda. Her hormone riddled brain immediately latched onto the thought and she hid a secret smile as she pictured the scene quite vividly. She was unprepared, however, for the image of her and Parker making out to mutate into one of her and Giles locked together in a steamy clinch. Overcome with embarrassment, and no small amount of panic, she proceeded to choke on her sandwich.

"Buffy!"

Hearing the concern in his voice she was able to give a reassuring nod and grimace as she coughed and spluttered through her mortification.

"Here," he said, gently, passing her the bottle of water she had been drinking from earlier. "Are you alright?"

Her mild hysteria threatened to return as he reached out a hand and brushed some of the hair away from her face. "Fine," she croaked, "I'm fine."

Clearly not convinced, and slightly worried by the fact that she couldn't look him in the eye for longer than three seconds, he did the only thing he could think of and offered to make some tea. Buffy sighed in relief as he retreated to the kitchen and she took full advantage of the alone time to have a stern word with herself about inappropriate thoughts. Blessedly, by the time he returned she had her emotions firmly under control and was able to get through the remainder of their lunch without further incident.

With her big date looming Buffy chalked the afternoon's events up to 'hormone induced insanity' and decided to focus on looking hot for the party. By the time Parker picked her up she'd forgotten all about it and was happy to focus on the new boy in her life. The frat party wasn't bad, in all honesty she'd have preferred to go somewhere a bit more intimate, but as frat parties went, it was one of the better ones she had been to. Or it was until they had run into Spike and Harmony and she had had to ditch Parker and give chase.

"What's the matter Spike? Dru dump you again?" Buffy asked as she caught up with them outside and aimed a series of punches at Spike.

"Maybe I left her." Spike retorted only to be shown up by Harmony's timeless appearance.

"She left him for a fungus demon. That's all he talks about most days."

"Harm! We're going," he said, angrily, as he strode up to her, "It isn't time yet."

"Yeah, but as soon as we have the gem of Amara, you're gonna be sorr-"

"Argh!"

"What? Ow!" Harmony wailed as Spike dragged her away. Buffy watched them go, deciding it was a better idea to get Giles into research mode before she confronted them again. Happy to have a plan she ran over to the payphone and dialled Giles' number. She smiled slightly as his warm voice greeted her and she quickly relayed her meeting with the vampire duo.

"The gem of Amara. Are you sure?" Giles asked, incredulously.

" Yeah, what's up? "

"Uh, oh, it's just, uh, it's not real." He shuffled over to the boxes that held his books and searched until he found the one he was looking for. "It's uh, the vampire equivalent of the Holy Grail. The source of some enormous powe, was conveniently vague. Oh, here it is, yes. There was a great deal of vampiric interest in locating it during the, uh, oh the 10th century. Questing vampires combed the earth, but no one ever found anything. It was concluded that it never existed."

"Well, Spike seems to think it exists. And he's looking in Sunnydale."

"Yes, well I'll research it as best I can. You've done all you can for tonight. I'd imagine you'd like to get back to your date?" Suddenly aware that he was gripping the telephone rather hard he relaxed his grip and flushed inexplicably.

"Yeah, I probably should. Night Giles."

"Night Buffy," he whispered, before returning the phone to its cradle and standing to finish his stretches off. He wasn't able to control the small flicker of a smile that appeared when he realised that she sounded a lot less enthusiastic about returning to her date than he'd imagined she would. He shook his head, as if to clear the thought, but found that it was replaced by thoughts of their afternoon together and how soft her lips had felt against his cheek. His didn't quite understand what was happening to him. He'd never before thought of Buffy this way, but now he seemed incapable of _not_ thinking about her. In one spur of the moment action she had managed to open his eyes to see the beautiful, and God help him, desirable woman before him. And he had no idea what to do about it. Confused, and becoming increasingly frustrated with himself, he opened the nearest book and settled himself in for a night of research.

"Parker. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find you." Buffy said as she offered him an apologetic smile.

"I was getting a little worried."

"I'm so sorry. It's just that - the English guy is an old friend. And he's not supposed to drink. And I saw him here in the land of the beer-"

"It's okay. You did a good thing for your friend. Did uh, you and he used to go out?"

Her laughter had a slightly hysterical edge to it as she contemplated how best to answer. "Um, no. No we really, really didn't."

"Good," he said, relieved, "now, we have time to make up for. Think I could get a dance with the prettiest girl at the party?"

"What am I supposed to do? Stand over here and watch?" She joked, to mask her nervousness, as he pulled her onto the dance floor. It was nice, she decided, dancing with someone, even if he did keep talking about himself all the time.

"Well, I declared premed. But I hated it. So I switched to history."

"History? Fascinating dates and compelling faces."

"But there's something amazing about these huge events that when you dig down into them they're just about regular people trying to make choices. When you look back at it seems like people were swept up in events they couldn't control. But I don't believe that. I believe you have a choice in everything you do," he murmured, lowering his face to hers and kissing her gently. As his lips touched hers Buffy had a blinding realisation that she was being seduced. It was as if everything he'd ever said to her had suddenly clicked into place and she knew she was being played. "Is this okay?" he asked, misinterpreting her lack of response as apprehension, "Because I can stop if you wanna. It's your choice." She pulled away from him and moved herself out of his reach. "What are you doing?" he asked, confusion etched across his face.

"Making a choice," she answered and then walked away, leaving him in the middle of the dance floor.

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TBC...


End file.
